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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
This book was not it for me...
This might have been a wasted opportunity, but it is so far gone that I wouldn't even call it that - at this point I am not even sure there was an opportunity to begin with.
The novel tells the story of Rachel - a hardened cop that moves her family to middle-of-nowhere Virginia to be police chief. However, Rachel and her husband are ill-fitted for the overly religious townsfolk, her boss hates her, her husband can barely find a job as a journalist/writer and soon after they arrive they tragically lose their son in a car accident. A year afterwards a hitchhiker is found dead and mutilated in the woods, and children start disappearing, which sets off the horror/thriller-ish plot.
So far so good - we have a creepy Virginia backdrop, stories of ancient beings lurking in the woods, a badass protagonist (or so the author thinks) holding it together after a family tragedy and some cute innocent totally-not-creepy kids. And then we brace for impact... Rachel holds the title of one of the worst (if not the worst) characters I have ever read about - she is absolutely idiotic in anything she does - she blames her husband for everything under the sun, if not him her partner at work, or daughters or her mistress or somebody that's not her; she treats everyone around her like absolute crap (including her surviving children); she listens to nobody but herself, even though she doesn't understand what she's doing 99.9% of the time; she pretends she cares so much, yet she cares about nothing else but her self-imposed martyrdom; she hates her life, and her children and her husband and the world and she is not afraid to show it in a myriad of ways. Rachel is volatile, stubborn and violent; she thinks she knows better than anyone and is guided by some absolutely incomprehensible moral code, yet in the book her actions cause the death of several people that she doesn't even acknowledge. The whole point of horror novels is to feel sympathy for the victims, to relate to them, but in this one I was just begging for someone to kill this woman ASAP because every second with her on the page is torture. I was also hoping for someone to end the misery of her poor husband and children (the real horror is them enduring her behavior). I thought I could never possibly relate to a drunk abusive husband more than to a mourning wife, but my-oh-my, we are stooping down to new lows with this novel. How Rachel is able to get a promotion, even in the smallest village in the middle of nowhere, is completely beyond me - not once has she shown any resemblance of logical thinking and detective skills in a 300 page book. Finn - the husband - is the scapegoat for every single thing wrong with the world, and he feels actual dread around Rachel - if this was some way for the author to portray an abusive marriage with a strong independent woman at the heart of it, she failed miserably - the last thing I feel towards Rachel is sympathy or understanding. The children are incredibly basic cardboard cutouts - the eldest daughter starting to rebel to find her place in the world; the youngest being the cherubic adorable innocent kid that draws creepy paintings of strange things lurking in the shadows. And that's a wrap on our main cast - everyone else in this novel is portrayed as a one-note hillbilly with a single acute trait - druggie, religious, old-fashioned, macho, etc.
The issues with the book go way beyond the cast, unfortunately, everything is told to us and not ever shown. There's the lazy approach of hearing the inner monologues of our main cast, where they compete in the martyr and self-pity Olympics, failing to acknowledge the world has long moved on and people expect them to behave like parents of 2 children, who are left to fend for themselves in their own completely ineffective coping mechanisms. There could have been an interesting sub-plot with the main couple clashing with the townsfolk based on their differing views, yet this is barely touched upon and played for shock value with the underwhelming ending, as well as Rachel's bisexuality and Finn writing an article about the drug epidemic in Appalachia (something unforgivable apparently).
The creepiness never sets in, because the reader never truly feels grounded in this world - there is barely any information or description except for - small town in Virginia, lots of woods in the surrounding area. It feels like the main characters live in the middle of nowhere in the woods, yet it turns out they have neighbors right beside their property, the whole geography shifts (unintentionally) depending on what the author wants to show us. The beings that occupy the woods are not even remotely explained, their motivations are flimsy at best, so at no point do we actually grasp the intensity of the situation. If they are indeed so vicious and terrifying and have lived in the woods for ages - why is the town not pagan in its' beliefs and instead fundamentalist Christian? It makes zero sense with the information provided to us. I get that a certain level of mystery lends itself to such horror plots, but when nothing makes sense, the impact you're aiming for cannot be felt by the reader.
This book feels like a cheap shot at creating a horror by taking popular genre tropes - spooky woods, creepy kids, disturbing drawings, gory murders, a backward old school religious town in a remote location and some ancient vaguely-explained lore - sprinkling in some more modern ideas like bisexuality, a broken marriage, how to move on in the face of tragedy, the liberal modern family thrown against a stagnant setting and shoving them in a blender until they are completely indistinguishable. None of these are even remotely expanded upon, and if they barely are, it is not at all in a good way. It seems like the author completed her checklist and decided this is good enough, no need to elaborate further. Honestly, even 2 stars are too much for this book. I suppose I didn't DNF, so I am giving some grace, even if I soldiered on just to see that everyone dies in the end.
This might have been a wasted opportunity, but it is so far gone that I wouldn't even call it that - at this point I am not even sure there was an opportunity to begin with.
The novel tells the story of Rachel - a hardened cop that moves her family to middle-of-nowhere Virginia to be police chief. However, Rachel and her husband are ill-fitted for the overly religious townsfolk, her boss hates her, her husband can barely find a job as a journalist/writer and soon after they arrive they tragically lose their son in a car accident. A year afterwards a hitchhiker is found dead and mutilated in the woods, and children start disappearing, which sets off the horror/thriller-ish plot.
So far so good - we have a creepy Virginia backdrop, stories of ancient beings lurking in the woods, a badass protagonist (or so the author thinks) holding it together after a family tragedy and some cute innocent totally-not-creepy kids. And then we brace for impact... Rachel holds the title of one of the worst (if not the worst) characters I have ever read about - she is absolutely idiotic in anything she does - she blames her husband for everything under the sun, if not him her partner at work, or daughters or her mistress or somebody that's not her; she treats everyone around her like absolute crap (including her surviving children); she listens to nobody but herself, even though she doesn't understand what she's doing 99.9% of the time; she pretends she cares so much, yet she cares about nothing else but her self-imposed martyrdom; she hates her life, and her children and her husband and the world and she is not afraid to show it in a myriad of ways. Rachel is volatile, stubborn and violent; she thinks she knows better than anyone and is guided by some absolutely incomprehensible moral code, yet in the book her actions cause the death of several people that she doesn't even acknowledge. The whole point of horror novels is to feel sympathy for the victims, to relate to them, but in this one I was just begging for someone to kill this woman ASAP because every second with her on the page is torture. I was also hoping for someone to end the misery of her poor husband and children (the real horror is them enduring her behavior). I thought I could never possibly relate to a drunk abusive husband more than to a mourning wife, but my-oh-my, we are stooping down to new lows with this novel. How Rachel is able to get a promotion, even in the smallest village in the middle of nowhere, is completely beyond me - not once has she shown any resemblance of logical thinking and detective skills in a 300 page book. Finn - the husband - is the scapegoat for every single thing wrong with the world, and he feels actual dread around Rachel - if this was some way for the author to portray an abusive marriage with a strong independent woman at the heart of it, she failed miserably - the last thing I feel towards Rachel is sympathy or understanding. The children are incredibly basic cardboard cutouts - the eldest daughter starting to rebel to find her place in the world; the youngest being the cherubic adorable innocent kid that draws creepy paintings of strange things lurking in the shadows. And that's a wrap on our main cast - everyone else in this novel is portrayed as a one-note hillbilly with a single acute trait - druggie, religious, old-fashioned, macho, etc.
The issues with the book go way beyond the cast, unfortunately, everything is told to us and not ever shown. There's the lazy approach of hearing the inner monologues of our main cast, where they compete in the martyr and self-pity Olympics, failing to acknowledge the world has long moved on and people expect them to behave like parents of 2 children, who are left to fend for themselves in their own completely ineffective coping mechanisms. There could have been an interesting sub-plot with the main couple clashing with the townsfolk based on their differing views, yet this is barely touched upon and played for shock value with the underwhelming ending, as well as Rachel's bisexuality and Finn writing an article about the drug epidemic in Appalachia (something unforgivable apparently).
The creepiness never sets in, because the reader never truly feels grounded in this world - there is barely any information or description except for - small town in Virginia, lots of woods in the surrounding area. It feels like the main characters live in the middle of nowhere in the woods, yet it turns out they have neighbors right beside their property, the whole geography shifts (unintentionally) depending on what the author wants to show us. The beings that occupy the woods are not even remotely explained, their motivations are flimsy at best, so at no point do we actually grasp the intensity of the situation. If they are indeed so vicious and terrifying and have lived in the woods for ages - why is the town not pagan in its' beliefs and instead fundamentalist Christian? It makes zero sense with the information provided to us. I get that a certain level of mystery lends itself to such horror plots, but when nothing makes sense, the impact you're aiming for cannot be felt by the reader.
This book feels like a cheap shot at creating a horror by taking popular genre tropes - spooky woods, creepy kids, disturbing drawings, gory murders, a backward old school religious town in a remote location and some ancient vaguely-explained lore - sprinkling in some more modern ideas like bisexuality, a broken marriage, how to move on in the face of tragedy, the liberal modern family thrown against a stagnant setting and shoving them in a blender until they are completely indistinguishable. None of these are even remotely expanded upon, and if they barely are, it is not at all in a good way. It seems like the author completed her checklist and decided this is good enough, no need to elaborate further. Honestly, even 2 stars are too much for this book. I suppose I didn't DNF, so I am giving some grace, even if I soldiered on just to see that everyone dies in the end.
Spoiler
Thankfully, most of them do.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I typically love some morally grey characters, but the two protagonists' issues seemed to be resolved at the end without any substantive character development throughout. The plot was interesting, but the pacing was so sporadic it completely took away from the mystery and action. Case in point, near the end of the book we move abruptly away from the main characters and action to get a massive lore dump from two side characters at a completely different location. If that information had been doled out gradually throughout the story (perhaps with the protagonists uncovering it instead of a minor character who then never interacts with them again) it would have felt more impactful and satisfying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes